The Sun Belt Conference (SBC) is a collegiate athletic conference that has been affiliated with the NCAA's Division I since 1976. Originally a non-football conference, the Sun Belt began sponsoring football in 2001. Its football teams participate in the Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). The 14 member institutions of the Sun Belt are distributed across the Southern United States.
The Atlantic 10 Conference (A-10) is a collegiate athletic conference whose schools compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's (NCAA) Division I. The A-10's member schools are located mostly on the East Coast and Midwest of the United States: Illinois, Massachusetts, Missouri, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Virginia, and Washington, D.C.
The Ohio Valley Conference (OVC) is a collegiate athletic conference which operates in the Midwestern and Southeastern United States. It participates in Division I of the NCAA; the conference's football programs compete in partnership with the Big South Conference in the Football Championship Subdivision, the lower of two levels of Division I football competition. The OVC has 11 members, six of which compete in football in the conference.
The Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) is a collegiate athletic conference whose full members are historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in the Southeastern and the Mid-Atlantic United States. It participates in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I, and in football, in the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS).
The Southern Conference (SoCon) is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I. Southern Conference football teams compete in the Football Championship Subdivision. Member institutions are located in the states of Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia.
The Northeast Conference (NEC) is a collegiate athletic conference whose schools are members of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Teams in the NEC compete in Division I for all sports; football competes in the Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS). Participating schools are located principally in the Northeastern United States, from which the conference derives its name.
The Big South Conference is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA's Division I. Originally a non-football conference, the Big South began sponsoring football in 2002 as part of the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS), and began operating the Big South–OVC Football Association in partnership with the Ohio Valley Conference in 2023. The Big South, founded in 1983, is firmly rooted in the South Atlantic region of the United States, with full member institutions located in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia. Associate members are located in Georgia and South Carolina.
The Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division II level, whose member institutions consist entirely of historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs).
The Coastal Athletic Association (CAA), formerly the Colonial Athletic Association, is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA's Division I whose full members are located in East Coast states, from Massachusetts to South Carolina. Most of its members are public universities, and the conference is headquartered in Richmond. The CAA was historically a Southern conference until the addition of four schools in the Northeastern United States after the turn of the 21st century, which added geographic balance to the conference.
The Atlantic Sun Conference (ASUN) is a collegiate athletic conference operating mostly in the Southeastern United States. The league participates at the NCAA Division I level, and began sponsoring football at the Division I FCS level in 2022. Originally established as the Trans America Athletic Conference (TAAC) in 1978, it was renamed as the Atlantic Sun Conference in 2001, and briefly rebranded as the ASUN Conference from 2016 to 2023. The conference still uses "ASUN" as an official abbreviation. The conference headquarters are located in Atlanta. On May 8, 2024, the conference announced it would move its headquarters from Atlanta, Georgia to Jacksonville, Florida in the fall of 2024.
The Old Dominion Monarchs are composed of 18 intercollegiate athletic teams representing Old Dominion University, located in Norfolk, Virginia. Men's sports include baseball, basketball, football, golf, sailing, soccer, swimming, and tennis. Women's sports include basketball, field hockey, lacrosse, golf, sailing, soccer, swimming, tennis, rowing, and volleyball. The Monarchs compete in the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) and are members of the Sun Belt Conference (SBC); the university joined the conference on July 1, 2022.
The Hampton Pirates football team represents Hampton University in college football. The Pirates compete in the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) as a member of CAA Football, the legally separate football league operated by the multi-sports Colonial Athletic Association (CAA).
The Monmouth Hawks refer to the 23 sports teams representing Monmouth University in West Long Branch, New Jersey. The Hawks compete in the NCAA Division I and are members of the Coastal Athletic Association, joining on July 1, 2022. The football team became an FCS Independent for the 2013 season, and moved to the Big South Conference on July 1, 2014. The women's bowling program was a charter member of the Southland Bowling League, a single-sport conference formed in January 2015, but moved that sport to the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference after the 2017–18 season, and will return to the Northeast Conference, in which Monmouth had been a full member from 1985 to 2013, as a single-sport member for 2024–25 and beyond.
The Howard Bison and Lady Bison are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Howard University, located in Washington, D.C. The Bison compete in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)'s and Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) and are members of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference for most sports. On July 16, 2015, the Athletics Department unveiled new logos, replacing the previous logo that was nearly identical to that used by the National Football League's Buffalo Bills.
The Hampton Pirates men's basketball team is the basketball team that represents Hampton University in Hampton, Virginia, United States. The Pirates compete in the Colonial Athletic Association. The school's team formerly competed in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference, and the Big South Conference. Notably, the 2000-01 Hampton team was one of ten 15 seeds ever to upset a 2 seed in the Round of 64 of an NCAA tournament, defeating Iowa State in the first round.
The Battle of the Bay is a U.S. college football rivalry between the Hampton Pirates and the Norfolk State Spartans. It is a match-up between two historically black NCAA Division I FCS programs in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia.
The Real HU is an American college football rivalry game played annually by the Bison of Howard University and the Pirates of Hampton University. The series started in 1908 and is driven by several factors, which include the close proximity of the two Mid-Atlantic schools, the historically high academic standing of both these private institutions as Howard and Hampton are considered Black Ivy League universities and have student-alumni populations from similar backgrounds, and that the two schools have competed in the same athletic conferences for approximately a century.
David Six is the former head coach of the Hampton Pirates women's basketball team. Before joining the Pirates in 2009, Six started his head coaching tenure at Hampton High School as their girls basketball coach from 1993 to 1995. At Hampton, Six reached the semi-finals of the 1995 Virginia High School League tournament for Group AAA teams. Six then coached boys basketball at Gloucester High School from 1995 to 1997. After returning to the girls basketball team at Hampton in 1998, Six remained at Hampton High until 2008. As their coach, Six and Hampton High won the Group AAA championship in girls basketball during 2001 and 2007.
